Chapter Forty
Josh put a plate of perfect scrambled eggs onto the table in front of Eliza, who wore a soft gray T-shirt he’d lent her, her hair up in a messy bun. “I told you I wanted to make you breakfast,” he said, dropping a kiss on her head.
The night before, they’d ordered Thai food, after which they ended up back in bed. The second time was, amazingly, even better than the first. Afterward, for the first time in a long time, Eliza fell into a deep sleep.
He sat opposite her at the tiny bistro table with his own plate of eggs.
“These are delicious!” she exclaimed, savoring the flavor.
“Don’t get your expectations too high. They’re just about the only thing I know how to cook. And sorry I don’t have any tea for you. I’ll have to pick some up.”
There was a time that a man offering to buy tea bags to keep in his apartment for her would have sent her running, but she loved the idea of Josh studying all the options on the shelves at the nearest bodega and then selecting a few for her to sample.
“So, I was thinking,” he started. “About Ross. Are you afraid that you’d be betraying your dad by getting to know him?”
She swallowed the bite of eggy goodness in her mouth. “Maybe, in part.” She paused. “I think I’m also scared of getting hurt. Him changing his mind again. It’s tough for me to believe people are going to stick around.”
He reached across and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. “The people who are worth having in your life will stay.”
She turned her hand to squeeze his. “I like that.”
“Maybe I should embroider it on a pillow.”
She laughed. “Your next career if this lawyering thing doesn’t work out.”
“Yeah, well, first I’d need to learn how to sew.”
“We could work on that today, if you’d like.”
He stood, picking up their empty plates and forks and depositing them in the sink. Then he pulled her out of her chair. “Our day is already completely booked,” he said, tilting her chin up and capturing her lips with his own.
Scott groaned. “I’m not sure how I’m going to get used to this,” he said, but the corners of his mouth threatened to turn up.
Eliza and Josh had just approached the table where Scott and Maren were seated. A basket of rustic bread was already there, and Scott had a beer in front of him. Maren was drinking... lemonade? Scott rose to hug Eliza and then punched Josh in the arm. “You know what that’s for, man, right?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Josh rolled his eyes, and he and Eliza took off their jackets before sitting opposite Scott and Maren. It was Friday night, and it had been just about two weeks since Josh had first cooked scrambled eggs for Eliza, and Eliza suspected she’d already spent more time with him than she had with Carter over the two months or so that they’d been “together.” Or, indeed, with anyone else. She occasionally got heart palpitations at the thought of it?—but mostly Josh caused her heart to race for all the right reasons.
Maren grinned. “Well, I think you guys make a cute couple. It’s about time.”
About time that Eliza was with someone Maren approved of? Or that she and Josh got together? Eliza decided not to ask.
They perused the menu, where so many things sounded delicious. Eliza’s grief-blunted appetite had begun to return, and a few of her lost pounds had come back. Once they’d ordered a feast that not long before would have turned her stomach, they fell into easy chatter. “What are you doing this weekend?” Maren asked, spreading butter on a slab of sourdough.
“We’re going to lunch with Ross,” Eliza said, looking nervously at Scott. Her brother didn’t look happy, but he nodded. She decided not to share the thought that kept popping into her head?—that she’d known her new boyfriend much, much longer than she’d known her “father.”
“How’s that going?” Maren asked.
“Okay, I think. We’re taking it slow. Just getting to know each other. It’s weird, and yet not weird, if that makes sense.”
“Oh yeah, it makes perfect sense.” Scott rolled his eyes.
“Maren?—would you mind smacking your husband for me?” Eliza smiled to show that she was kidding... sort of.
Maren exchanged glances with Scott, and they seemed to share a telepathic communication. Finally, Scott spoke. “Well, I’m sure she’d be happy to, but then she’d be smacking the father of her child.”
“Oh my gosh!” Eliza exclaimed.
“Congratulations! That’s fantastic,” Josh chimed in.
Maren wore an ear-to-ear grin, and Scott’s smile was nearly as wide.
Eliza couldn’t have imagined being more excited. “Wow! Tell us everything !”
Scott tapped his fingers on the table and gave her a sly look. “Well, you see, when a man and a woman really love each other...”
She stuck out her tongue at him. “Ha ha. Very funny. I mean, when are you due? Are you going to find out if it’s a girl or a boy?”
As Maren and Scott answered her questions, Eliza couldn’t help thinking about Scott’s comment. Obviously, not all babies grew out of love. Some grew out of one-night stands. And some grew out of something in between. She truly wasn’t sure what was going to happen with her and Ross, but that was okay. And she wasn’t sure what was going to happen with her and Josh, but for now, she was happier than she’d ever been.
She’d never stop missing Laura. Or Jack. And she and Carol were unlikely ever to be any more than acquaintances who had once loved?—in very different ways, of course?—the same man. But she no longer thought that Laura was perfect, or that Jack was irredeemably flawed. And whatever scars her parents had left her with weren’t going to keep her from risking her heart. Not anymore.
Beside her, Josh reached for her hand under the table. She let him take it and held on tight.